"There's maps in that pile of stuff in the corner," Buck said, going to the duffle. "You're on Sheet 4 now. Here's Caruthersville." "Yas, suh. Those red lines?" "The new survey. You see, that sandbar up in Little Prairie Bend has cut loose from Island No. 15, and moved down three miles, and we're at the foot of this bar, here. That's moved down, too, and that big bar down there was made between the surveys. You see, they had to move the levee back, and Caruthersville moved over the new levee----" "Sho!" Rasba gasped. "What ails this old riveh?" "She jes' wriggles, same's water into a muddy road downhill," Kippy laughed. "Up there in Little Prairie Bend hit's caved right through the old levee, and they had to loop around. Now they've reveted it." "Reveted?" "They've woven a willow mattress and weighted it down with broken rock from up the river--more than a mile of it, now, and they'll have to put down another mile before they can head the river off there." "Put a carpet down. How wide?" "Four hundred feet probably----" "An' a mile long!" Rasba whispered, awed. "Every thing's big on the riveh!" "Yes, sir--that's it--big!" Buck laughed. Thus the four gossiped, and when Doctor Grell had taken his departure the three talked together about the river and its wonders. At intervals they went over to look after Prebol whose chief requirement was quiet, meat broths, and his medicines. As night drew down Drones turned to Buck: "It's goin' to be hard leaving the riveh! I neveh will forget, Buck. If I'm sent to jail for all my life, I'll have something to remember. If they hang me, I shore will come back to walk with those that walk in the middle of the river." "What's that?" Rasba turned and demanded. "Riveh folks believe that thousands of people who died down thisaway, sunk in snagged steamers, caught in burned-up boats, blown to kingdom come in boiler explosions, those that have been murdered, and who died along the banks, keep a-goin' up and down." "Sho!" Rasba exclaimed. "Yo' b'lieve that?" "A man believes a heap more after he's tripped the riveh once or twice, than he ever believed in all his borned days, eh, Buck?"